Roadblocks with sandbags and concrete pieces in Lviv.


© Manuel Lorenzo/EFE
Roadblocks with sandbags and concrete pieces in Lviv.

Russia has announced a six-hour ceasefire for the opening of humanitarian corridors that allow the evacuation of the civilian population in the cities of Mariupol and Volnovaja. The temporary cessation of the attacks is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Spanish peninsular time. The City Council of the city of Mariupol, located in southeastern Ukraine, confirmed that the evacuation of the civilian population was to start at 11:00 local time (10.00 Spanish peninsular time). However, an hour later than the appointed time, the City Council denounced that was still awaiting confirmation of that ceasefire on the evacuation route for the civilian population. At the scheduled time, there was still fighting in some places, such as in the region of Zaporiyia. “As of 10:55 local time (08:55 GMT, one more hour in Spain), the confirmation of the ceasefire was received only in the region of Donetsk. Further along the route, in the region of Zaporiyia fighting is taking place”, the consistory has indicated on its official Telegram channel. It is planned that the evacuation will take place in municipal buses from three points of the city and in Private vehicleswhich must strictly adhere to a pre-established route, the City Council said on its Telegram channel.

Cars with as many people as possible

The authorities of the city, located on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov and with nearly 450,000 inhabitants, asked the drivers to take as many people as possible in your cars. “Dear residents of Mariupol, from today the evacuation of the city begins. It’s not an easy decision but as I have always said, Mariupol is neither its streets nor its buildings. Mariupol are its inhabitants, we“, said the mayor of this town, Vadim Boichenko, in a message to the citizens. He explained that the task of the authorities is to protect the population and when the city “is under the merciless fire of the occupants, there is no other decision to give the population the opportunity to leave Mariupol safely”. Control of this city is of a strategic nature for Russia, because it would allow it to guarantee territorial continuity between its forces arriving from the Crimean peninsula and those from the pro-Russian separatist territories of the Ukrainian Donbas. Russia and Ukraine agreed to open humanitarian corridors in the second round of negotiations that their respective delegations held on Thursday in Belarusian territory and declare a temporary ceasefire in those places to allow it, the mayor of Mariupol said in the early hours of Thursday that the city was brink of a “humanitarian catastrophe”since it was left without electricity, water and heating due to the constant bombing of the Russian Army.

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